Insurgents killed four American soldiers and wounded three others in separate clashes in Afghanistan yesterday as the war-battered nation celebrated its independence day during an upsurge in violence. Three American soldiers were killed and three others wounded during combat operations in the Pech district of the eastern Kunar province, said Col. Tom Collins, the U.S. military spokesman. American troops in that area are hunting for Taliban fighters and extremists close to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network in remote mountains hugging the Pakistani border. A separate attack in southern Uruzgan province killed one American soldier and one Afghan soldier yesterday, said Maj. Quentin Innis, the spokesman for the NATO-led force. The violence came as thousands gathered to mark Afghanistan's independence from British rule in 1919, following the third Anglo-Afghan war. Repeated wars and conflicts have devastated the country of 25 million in the last three decades, with scars still visible on ... http://www.washingtontimes.com

A powerful earthquake struck Sunday in the Scotia Sea between South America and Antarctica, Japanese and U.S. officials said. No tsunami alert was issued by the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, said Dale Grant, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center. The 6.9-magnitude quake struck at 1:41 a.m. local time, the USGS said. Japan's Meteorological Agency put the preliminary magnitude at 7.2. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2334153

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has appealed to the international community for help to secure the release of his deputy. Nasser al-Shaer was detained by the Israeli army early on Saturday. The Israeli army said it had detained Mr Shaer because he was a member of a "terrorist organisation". Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian and wounded three near Nablus in the north of the West Bank on Sunday, Israeli and Palestinian sources said. Mr Haniya, from the Islamic militant movement Hamas, said the arrest was part of an Israeli attempt to undermine the Palestinian political system Mr Shaer is also a member of Hamas which formed the Palestinian government after winning parliamentary elections earlier this year. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5267876.stm

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney told the California GOP convention Saturday the United States should encourage foreigners with skills to immigrate, while discouraging those who come here illegally and without skills. "It is wrong for us to build an absolute concrete wall against those with skills and enterprise," he said, referring to foreign students who come here for advanced study, "and have a wide open door for people with no education and no skills." His remarks were greeted with enthusiastic applause from this conservative crowd, for whom illegal immigration is a hot issue. Romney, a Republican governor in a Democratic state, is exploring a presidential run in 2008. California, with its reservoir of campaign cash, is a key stop along campaign trails. Romney, a social conservative, also criticized gay marriage, saying, "every child deserves a mother and a father." He praised President Bush's aggressive foreign and military policies, and said the nation should wean itself from oil...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2334105

Calling their lives blessed, more than a dozen children and young adults from polygamist families in Utah spoke at a rally, calling for a change in state laws and the right to live the life and religion they choose. "Because of our beliefs, many of our people have been incarcerated and had their basic human rights stripped of them, namely life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," said a 19-year-old identified only as Tyler. "I didn't come here today to ask for your permission to live my beliefs. I shouldn't have to." Polygamy is banned in the Utah Constitution and is a felony offense. The rally was unusual because those who practice polygamy typically try to live under the radar. It drew about 250 supporters to City Hall on Saturday, said Mary Batchelor, co-founder of Principle Voices of Polygamy, which helped organize the event. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/20/national/main1913901.shtml?source=RSS&attr=U.S._1913901

In normal times, Luis Egas would have risen before dawn to tend livestock or fields of potatoes and onions.But as the sun rose Saturday, all he could do was survey his village, laid waste by a volcanic eruption that spewed incandescent rock, showers of ash,and rivers of molten lava."We never thought Tungurahua would awake like this," Egas said of the volcano, whose name means "throat of fire" in the local Quichua language. Authorities said Saturday that three people had died from the 19-hour eruption, which ended Thursday before dawn, and that two others were feared killed. Another 30 people who had been listed as missing had been located alive....http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/08/19/ecuador.volcano.ap/index.html?section=cnn_world